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Nightlands Zoology
The Nightlands is a strange and often terrible place, full of dim hollows and dark mountains. In this shadowed land Abyss' influence is immense, and much of the fauna in these lands are found nowhere else . . . and nowhere else would some of the more twisted abominations be tolerated by sane minds. Black Forest Fauna The Black Forest is huge and sprawling, a nigh-impenetrable labyrinth of pine barrens and mazes of twisted, darkened trees. During the day it is covered in a thick mist, and thus it is always twilight there. Many of the animals have adapted to the low light conditions, and wander through the darkness. Here too hide many spirits of shade and mist and tree and earth. Aagraed A kind of shy forest deer found in the Nightlands. Though much like other deer in most respects, they have a second set of eyes where most deer would have antlers, and a set of very short cillia tendrils on the stomach, which additionally has a secondary mouth. THey feed by simply lying down and allowing their cillia to move them along as the mouth feeds at the forest floor as the primary mouth nibbles at berries, leaves, and brush. This leaves them mostly hidden by brush but for their head, so it is more difficult for the numerous predators to find them. They are the main prey item of many large predators in the Black forest. Abracht A small reptile that grows to about three feet long but is thin and something of a cross between a snake and a six-legged lizard with a blunt head. They are mostly arboreal, feeding on bird and insects. Alkadaert An immense herbivore, these creatures have pretty much no natural predators. They have thickset bodies with a great deal of blubber, blunt fingers, and vaguely bovine heads with large horns. They sit in one spot for long periods of time, eating bark and foliage. They have a rather frightening countenance, with gigantic luminous, pupiless eyes, heavy horns, and lipless, slobbering mouths that constantly show off huge, tombstone-shaped teeth. Alkadaert have an indeterminant growth pattern, so some of the very oldest ones can be forty feet tall and nearly as wide. Bachtk A silent creature, these owls are supernaturally quiet, never uttering a sound even when being injured, or when striking objects. They have a habit of pacing along tree branches and staring at anything that moves. Baaluur Terrible creatures, these beings are nothing more than a mass of tentacles and several mouths. They stretch themselves between trees and snatch at most anything that comes close, and will rip whatever they catch to pieces. Though nearly invisible in the gloom, they are given away by the Paachik worms and other scavengers that congregate underneath them to feed on the bloodied scraps. Cait Sidhe A bizarre, shapeshifting creature that can change between a giant winged cat, an owl with a cat's ears, or a young woman of any humanoid race with a cat's tail. They are rare, and, while they can speak, are immensely dangerous to lone humanoids. They are intensely cunning and will try to lure people away from groups while in their humanoid form to devour them. A lone person is typically killed with a single back-breaking paw to the spine or a throat-collapsing bite. Crotoa More like myths than actual creatures, crotoa are the ultimate in stealth hunting. Silent, unbelievably fast, and practically invisible, they can destroy a whole caravan or small village without ever even being seen or heard, only empty houses left in their wake. The few depictions of them available among the Ghraethetcheckt are rarely consistent, sometimes showing a semi-corporeal mist with huge eyes and fangs, other times a transparent snake with wings, and occasionally a simple floating orb with an incredibly wide, sharp-toothed smile. They are greatly feared in the Nightlands, and used often to keep children from straying too far into the woods alone. Falthatchk A low-slung, furry carpet of flesh that moves on numerous small clawlike digits. It exudes a weak acid from its underbelly, the semi-digested detritus soaked up periodically as the thing lies flat, rapidly covering itself with dirt to hide. They grow to about ten feet long and half as wide. The Ghraethetcheckt kill these creatures for ready-made, incredibly soft blankets and rugs. GuuJodt A creature much like a twelve-foot centipede with snapping crab-claws for forelegs and a set of trifurcated jaws, these creatures are, despite their frightening appearance, congenial and a valued work-animal and pet for the Ghraethetcheckt. They are loyal, trainable and, if given a task, they always do a good job. Korokchutuur A type of bird, possibly, it resembles nothing so much as a ball of thirteen eyes atop a furry blob of a body the size of a softball, propelled by a set of four stubby 'wings' that are more like squares of skin stretched taut between two long spines. They will jump from trees and make a trademark 'pop' sound as their wings snap shut, sending them rocketing towards a target mouse or small lizard, which they essentially kill on impact, protected by their heavy bones and thick hide. However, they cannot actually fly, and if they hit their prey on the ground they must climb back up into the trees using their four clawed, muscular legs. Paachik A type of thick-bodied worm that crawls among the detritus, eating any rotting flesh they come across. They are the main scavengers of the Black Forest, and a staple food for many insectivores. They have a peculiar defense mechanism that consists of regurgitating the stew of necrotic bacteria they hold in their gut. Not only does this taste vile, if swallowed there is a significant risk of having the internal organs get lesions or even start rotting. Only a handful of animals, thus, eat them regularly. Prichtick A rather dopey-looking animal with unbelievably matted, astonishingly thick fur on every part of its body. About the size of a boar, they lope serenely through the woods, picking up sticks, leaves, and all sorts of other vegetation in their fur. After a time, they sit down to eat, picking the food out of their fur with an obscenely long tongue. They ignore most creatures, as their fur is so tangled and thick that nearly nothing can bite or claw through it, and the Prichtick is fully capable of defending itself with long ursine claws. The Prichtick does not eat flesh, but it often snares small rodents, reptiles and insects in its hair as well, though totally by accident, and they often have bones and miniature skeletons hanging from the tangled ends of their pelt. Q' Zichtid A type of peculiar creature, a long, tapered cylinder of skin surrounding organs and tethered to trees by long sinewy tendrils. They hang there, feeding off nutrients sucked from the tree. Though they are basically defenseless, if threatened they can use the tendril they hang on to bounce about, trying to avoid capture. They make a staple dish among the Ghraethetcheckt, who are more than quick enough to harvest them. The favoured way to eat them is raw, biting off one end of the Q' Zichtid and sucking out the internal organs. The skins are often cured and used as either jerky, or, if treated properly, as waterskins. Raegautcht As adults, they resemble massive maggots twice as long as a person, with a bulbous head and a mouth that can stretch wide enough to engulf a dog. These worms are looked after by their hatchlings, which resemble a cat-sized fly with a set of long, snapping mandibles, a stinger, and two sets of ripping mantis forelegs. A colony of these juveniles will care for the adult, feeding it small animals they hunt down, and they do not become adults until the current one of the group dies. In this case, the oldest and largest individual among the juveniles will become sedentary and be fed by the others, rapidly growing and finally splitting its shell and emerging as an adult, which lets it grow even more, soon reaching full size. The adult is fed, but the younger ones are lacking of real chewing mouthparts, so the adult will process the food and some of it will be distributed to the young by a series of nipple-like protrusions that release a kind of frothy, churned mix of blood and gore. Interestingly enough, the Ghraethetcheckt often will adopt colonies of these creatures, 'milking' the adult to have some of the liquidized gore. This not only provides a great deal of protein, but the juveniles also keep the household and grounds clear of vermin. Ghraethetcheckt children are particularly fond of this 'milk', and it is a practice among many Ghraethetcheckt mothers to give it to their infants when their fangs start to grow in, to avoid the pain of accidental bites during breastfeeding. Sarchaeck A type of arachnid, somewhat resembling a web-weaving scorpion with a tail that curls under the body as it hangs from its web. They often stay in groups, forming a literal minefield of head-height swaying stingers. They will strike at any creature in range, often swinging themselves at the prey on their line. Once stung, the neurotoxic venom will rapidly paralyze the victim, allowing the Sarchaecks to drag them jointedly into the treetops to feed on. Uchtech Living in the cool streams of the Black Forest, these long, blind eels feed on river weed and algae. Their flesh is extremely soft and sweet, but they cannot be cooked as heat invariably melts the meat and renders it inedible. Waerg The Dunwolves of the Black Forest, these are apex predators, hulking wolves with a more hyena slope to their back and very dark fur as camoflage. Waerg-Dachkt The arboreal cousins of waergi, these creatures seem far more simian, with a lean body and six limbs armed with apelike paws. Each paw has two thumbs and four rotary fingers tipped with long, curved claws used for gripping tree bark and slashing at prey. They can jump astonishing distances and, unlike the solitary waergi, tend to hunt in groups. Zek A moving, constantly mutating ball of squirming flesh, between the size of a dog to that of a bear. They do not appear to ever sleep, drink, or do much of anything but rapidly crawl around and make a cacophony of various noises. Limbs and organs are regularly and quickly spawned and reabsorbed, tentacles, chitin, extra mouths and eyes, and many similar things. They are harmless until provoked, though, and ignore everything they come across, so unless directly in one's path, there is no danger. Balduur Moors Fauna The Baaluur Moors are home to some of the more predictable and saner wildlife of the Nightlands, but many of the creatures there are fierce predators and lonely wandering beasts. The vast scrubland and grasses encourage nomadic lifestyle for the animals here. DunWolf These are the most terrible predators of the Moors. Dunwolves are typically seven feet tall at the shoulder, have two heads, and hooves rather than paws. Both heads have razor-sharp teeth that constantly drip saliva, which is full of necrotic bacteria. While dunwolves typically eat smaller prey immediately, when hunting things like Utmaegi, they will simply bite once and stay back as the animal gets sick, dies, and partially rots before coming in to eat the soft, festering flesh. Praetcht A rodent, these animals burrow into the ground and create tunnel systems. Highly gregarious, they make chirping noises to alert one another to individual status, location, and to warn of danger. They resemble naked mole rats, but posses six limbs with three toes each. When winter comes, they hibernate, bundling up into a massive ball in a main chamber to keep warm through body heat. Though there is no leader among their little burrow systems, Praetcht tend to defer to any member older than them. Ru' Ubdaemaat Huge black birds akin to eagles, they stand nearly the height of a Troll and have a twenty-foot wingspan. They hunt here, gliding far and wide across the bleak moors. Q' Tachtk and Praetcht make up a large part of their diet. Q' Tachtk An adder, these serpents are venomous and aggressive, growing to ten feet long, the males having a spine-and-skin crest on the crown of their head that is displayed during mating.They also have a row of venomous spines along their tail, which they can lash at creatures that manage to avoid their strike and get behind them. Selchnid A kind of long-bodied wild horse, Selchnidi run in small herds across the moors, six powerful legs moving them along at amazing speed. Even more oddly, Selchnidi have a double pair of pteradactyline wings that they use to glide for short distances. Utmaeg Lumbering, eyeless ungulates with a round body topped by a bulky head and eight legs spread out around the body like spokes of a wheel. They feel vibrations with their hooves, and can move quite quickly when frightened. They stand about twenty feet high, and for the most part are hunted only by Dunwolves. Wandering Thuun Not even dunwolves will fight a wandering thuun. They move, always alone, across the moors, and ignore everything, only stopping to drink or eat. Resembling semi-upright, incredibly hairy pigs, they stand a good ten feet tall and have disproportionally large hands, with satyr-like hind legs. Their knuckles are studded with bone protrusions, and if attacked, they prove fast and incredibly strong fighters, swinging away with hammerlike blows and slashing with long tusks. Costal Areas The waters of the Nightlands are notable in having many varied species, but in particular sharks abound here, and, due to the constant darkness, many creatures usually found only in the depths of the deepest ocean trenches will come to the surface. Achti A type of large shark reaching 3 meters in length, they have an overlarge head and thick jowls that make them seem less streamlined. However, this hides the fact that the achti can essentially 'fire' its jaws out on a kind of fleshy tube that can be nearly as long as its body. Though not aggressive in particular, they can be dangerous if hooked, and dragging one into the boat may lead to a set of razor teeth slithering about the deck. Alnichtid A thick-bodied fish reaching about half a meter long, they have no eyes whatsoever, usually found in the deepest parts of the ocean. They come to the surface around the shallower areas of the Nightlands. They use a kind of vibration sense to find their way around, and are exceedingly hard to surprise or catch. Beridichtk A chitinous monstrosity associated with the Deep Goddess, these creatures are equal parts lobster, eel, and millipede. They can range from ten to fifty feet long, serpentine, with a long, slimey body interspersed with arthropod legs ending in snapping claws and thick natural armouring and shell. At the front is a bulbous head full of spike-like teeth ringing a sucking maw. There are also heavy flippers rowed irregularly on the body for propulsion, and a set of ciphons that can jet it along at speed. Choulthuhu Twisted cephalopods growing to great size, these creatures might be cousins of the Krakens of Manorym. They are much like the krakens, but significantly smaller and less tempermental by far. They are highly intelligent and almost playful, imitating other animals and even Ghraethetcheckt, climbing onto shore to explore, and collecting items they take interest in. Emachtkaad An aquatic mammal, they resemble seals, but with almost canine heads sporting no lips to constantly display rectangular, chisel-shaped teeth. They use these teeth to scrape seaweed and algae from the rocks in costal areas, and are harmless. They have no eyes, but do have a kind of sonar and, if observed closely, one will notice dozens of small holes on the snout. These holes hold extremely long, thin tendrils that are used as both sensory feelers and as feeding mechanisms. Nure Possibly relatives of the Lamia who live in the depths, they are less intelligent than the subterranean kin, more animalistic, with a kind of basic cunning akin to most apes. They look much like a long viperfish in the lower half, with a scaled, humanoid upper half possessing bulging, blind eyes, wide mouths full of three-inch, needle-thin teeth, and smooth, hairless features. They are stunted in the arms, with long, thickly-webbed fingers and malformed upper limbs. They can only slowly and awkwardly drag themselves around on land, but in the water they are blindingly fast. Malachid A variety of shark that can grow to absolutely monstrous sizes, larger than ten galleons nose to nose. THey have a doubled set of enormous jaws, stacked on one another, with millions of spade-sized teeth. They also have a half-dozen large dorsal and pectoral fins each, and their mouths are filled with dozens of whiplash tentacle-tongues tipped with barbs and embedded with several disturbingly aware eyes. THey are the undisputed top predators of the deeper waters around the Nightlands, prominent in the Bay of Teeth. Q' Zythacht One of the staple fish of the Ghraethetcheckt living on the coast, these long fish can reach twenty feet in length. They are razor-fanged and possessed of bulging, half-blind eyes, but they are often fished for and are fairly good in terms of food. The flesh is pale and almost insubstantial, and biting into it feels 'like biting thick moonlight'. Water-pup A suprisingly docile, friendly animal seemingly unsuited to the dark, terrible waters of the Nightlands, the Water-pups resemble small, squishy, limbed eels with large, intelligent eyes. They are an easy match for canines in terms of intelligence, and many are domesticated and trained to retrieve fish by Ghraethetcheckt fishers. Duur' Abmaachtk The sprawling, massive labyrinth of tunnels, passages, caverns, pits, and underground waterways offer a dwelling place for a vast array of creatures. Most, of course, are blind, and rely on other senses. One may find many of the Deep God's varied breeds of servants here, as well as more 'normal' animals and even some strange, Abyssal beasts that have never experienced light of any kind. Bobbi A thick bodied worm the size of a dog, Bobbi inhabit the dark tunnels and crawlspaces of the Duur' Abmaachtk. They have a thick-lipped, eyeless head with several blunt, tombstone-shaped teeth, and will eat anything they come across, mostly scavenging, but on occasion eating living things. Bokkor Possibly a spirit or ghost, these beings are found fairly close to the surface. Said to be servants or slaves of the God of the Deep Caverns, they exit the caves at night, searching for animals or mortals to possess. They look like wispy, indistinct figures made of semi-corporeal mist, and if any part of them is inhaled, the breather drops into a stupor that only fades when the sun comes up. During this time the bokkor can possess them, and once this happens, the body will be led down into the deep caves, never to be seen again. Bragghichi Large cave creatures, they resemble pale, hunchbacked simians with lank white fur and cloven hooves rather than feet. Rather than eyeballs, numerous long, fleshy filaments extend from the socket. These can be as long as the eight-foot creatures are tall, and are used to feel about in the utter blackness. These filaments are actually 'tongues' in a way, and are used to 'lick' lichens and algae from the cave walls. Despite being large and utterly alien, Bragghichi are completely harmless, and are docile creatures by nature. Bxighi A sort of serpent-insect cross, they grow to ten or twelve feet long. The body is scaled, with some chitin-plates along it, the thirteen limbs a kind of scythe-tipped tentacle, and the head looks to be an armoured maw filled with chitinous spines as long as a human finger. The tail has a set of long, tendoned spikes, which it anchors itself into the ceiling with. There it hangs, tendrils spread wide, and waits for bats or similar prey to go by. Their favoured prey is Charckrid. Chack-la Named for the sound their claws make on the stone as they prowl the deeper tunnels, Chack-lai resemble hairless, pasty-skinned, emaciated panthers with ten-inch, jetty talons capable of shredding chainmail. They eat practically anything that will bleed for them, and are ferocious predators. Like many of the cave's creatures, they are blind, and rely on the echoes of their claws to find prey. However, this means that they are similarly easy to hear. However, once you can hear their claws 'chack,chack,chack'ing on stone, they've already likely figured out where you are. Charckrid Large bats the size of crows, these creatures are typical chiropterans and feed on large insects, mice, small nightbirds, and similar creatures. An interesting note, however, is that to defend themselves, they will spit en masse at an offender. Their saliva is highly irritating, acting much like poison ivy, and is sufficient to deter most attackers after a few shots. Duur' Ohghalduchkt Massive, blind creatures living in the deepest, blackest chasms of the cave system, they look like a mass of pitch-black, squirming tentacles and snapping mouths capable of biting boulders in half. They slosh about in their pits half-filled with water, unseeing. Ghraethetcheckt believe them to be tiny shreds of Abyss Itself, left behind when it carved out the cave systems, and occasionally an Abyssal priest will venture down into the depths to search for one. Oddly, they seem intelligent and almost welcoming to visitors of this sort, though they are incapable of any speech, and the Abyssal priests looking for answers about Abyss' nature are always disappointed. Ghaemaal Adroit servants of the Deep God, these creatures resemble bloated, semi-upright rats the size of cows, and live in small clans and villages made of bones and stone. They have huge, almost luminous pale eyes that constantly leak mucous, and are useless. Instead, they use their long whiskers and multiple tails to feel their way around. They are fairly intelligent, but also hostile to most creatures. They tend to live quite deep down, fishing for blind, pale things in cold water, and growing mushrooms and lichens for themselves. They seem to be higher up in both intelligence and standing than the Vaetter, but are still only the staple, common slaves of the Deep God. Obedience to law is so ingrained into them, in fact, that they will freeze with indecision if given a command in a strong tone, even if the source is not one they are loyal to, even though this usually only lasts a second or two. Gradmig The overlords of the Ghaemaal, these creatures are a fair ways higher up the slave-ladder of the Deep God than their underlings. They appear as muscled, warty humanoids with thick features and massive sabre-teeth as well as a thick, tangled mane of hair into which they often braid bones and underground treasure. They are also huge, standing a good fifteen feet tall, and have a spiked sail-like affair on their back, which flares when they are incensed. Jaghi A type of slug that secretes an extremely sticky slime. They have hard beak that they use to break chips of off of stones, and then roll in the resultant pebbles. Once the slug is coated in chips of stone, they secrete asecondary slime that rapidly hardens, leaving them in a kind of stone shell. When immoblie, they resemble stones, and cavers or miners often are confused by 'moving rocks' in the caverns, which can contribute to the paranoia and disorientation the massive system can cause. Lamia Humanoid cave creatures, lamia live in small groups. They are wholly eyeless, just smooth, pale faces with wide, fanged mouths and pale hair, and twin slits for nostrils. Lamia have the appearance in thier upper half of a human woman, but with unnaturally pale, translucent skin. From the waist down, they have a tail that is more like an earthworm crossed with an eel, and short, stubby fins. They typically dwell in the underground lakes, lounging about them like abyssal merfolk. They are quite intelligent, and sapient. Though they seem congenial enough, they will kill and eat even others of thier kind if a significant weakness is discovered. Nakaechthat A bizarre mix of mammal, reptile, and insect, these creatures look vaguely like a spider crossbred with a bat-winged eagle sporting lank fur and vicious mandibles in place of a beak, as well as no eyes in favour of several long antennae. They live in large colonies, boring countless holes in the cave walls to live in, and always near water. They carefully cultivate moss and mushrooms from outside, and harvest them. They will defend these farms viciously, and Ghraemaal often take them as sort of guard-dogs for thier own fields. Xyziv Among all the deep creatures, this one is feared the most. Residing in the deepest, most abyssmal caverns, they resemble vast, thousand-limbed spiders with a body that pulses cancerously and is transparent enough to see the swirling, black, nebulous organs inside. The head is a hideous conglameration of eyes, teeth, and writhing tendrils as large as trees. Xyziv have an unholy intelligence and often psionic abilities like mind-reading and limited telekinesis. Meeting one of these creatures means you have gone incredibly deep, and are now in the reaches closest to the Firstrock Throne . . . Malaphetcht Fauna The Malaphetcht mountain range offers freezing temperatures, bare rock, and black pine barrens. With such incredibly harsh conditions, most of the animal life tends to be tough and very well adapted to a snowbound life. Aechaedaethaed A grey-skinned, hairless, eyeless beast resembling serpent with a crocodilian mouth filled with vicious teeth, and climbing the rocks on a dozen spindly, hook-taloned legs, these creatures clamber about, camoflaged by the colour of their hide. Their territories are often covered in scratches on the rocks, where their sharp claws have marred the stone. Aechaedaethaed hunt by ambush, laying among the rocks to hide with their similar skin colour and lumpy bodies. Caechtket Resembling nothing so much as a knee-high ball of white fur, Caechtket are round, fluffy rodents that feed on the moss and hardy grasses that grow into the snowline. Their only real defense is camoflage, hopping quickly into a snowdrift, which their plush white fur imitates almost perfectly. Despite their fluffy countenance, when shaved of their thick hair they resemble nothing so much as ruddy-skinned, semi-upright rats with opposable thumbs and no tails. Dappecht A mountain goat of types, but with a single horn growing from its snout and two tusks from the mouth. They feed mostly below and at the snowline, though during summer and spring they climb higher to keep cool in their thick fur. Gachtarekt A top predator of the mountains, Gachtarekt are somewhat ursine, with thick white fur, hairless, taut-skinned heads armed with long fangs, and a pair of curved, ribbed horns. They average about twelve feet high at the shoulder, and are, thankfully, solitary hunters. Gachtarekt are thus due to their notoriously bad social interactions; when two meet, they will usually fight each other until one or both is a barely recognizable reddish pulp. The rare exception is with males and females, who mate before pummeling one another for a short while and go their separate ways. Mollochid A semi-upright, huge creature, they are somewhat simian, with cloven-hooved feet and bovine heads possessed of chisel-like, obscenely sharp teeth. Their skin is almost scaldingly hot, and in the cold of the mountains their nostrils constantly leak steam. They have a taste for the flesh of young creatures, and are extremely aggressive. Naagudt A shaggy boar inhabiting the pine barrens that exist on the slopes of the mountains, these creatures are strong but not very fast and built heavily. Their fur, when they tense, goes on end, exposing barbed spines which small tentacles under the hair rub at constantly, coating them in a type of painful and inflammatory venom. Q' Iditatcht Herbivorous, weasel-like creatures that lack legs, they slither about on the pine needles of the forest floor, searching for berries and edible roots. They have very soft and smooth fur that seems to lack friction, letting the slightest movements propel them along quickly. Due to how luxurious their fur is, they are often kept by the Ghraethetckeckt as pets, coiled around their owner's necks as living scarves. Pelts are similarly very valuable, but not worth as much as a live one. Tachteck A land-dwelling, warm-blooded cephalopod with thirteen tentacles, these animals dwell in the rocks and crevasses of the mountains, leaving at night to cling to the trees and eat away at the bark. Zuu' Achtnegt A type of bat that inhabits the high caves in the mountains, they have three long tendrils for legs, each rowed with barbed hooks of bone. WIth a wingspan of thirty feet, they soar across the mountains at night, swooping low over the ground to snare hapless prey on their dangling tentacles. They have distinctly canine faces, no eyes, and large, scoop-shaped ears. Zuu' Achtnegt are fairly rare, and they do not live in colonies, preferring to stay alone in the cool caves above the snowline. Patheet Hills These rolling, wooded hills are home to many unusual creatures, many of which rely entirely on sound to go about their lives and navigate. Epitilst A tall, gangling creature with a flexible neck nearly its own height, they feed on the leaves of treetops. THey have two heads on either side of the body, four legs, and huge, floppy ears and lips, their lips being highly prehensile. Their tracks are distinctive, as they rotate slowly as they proceed, each head watching for danger in 360 degrees. Haackt A wooly animal easily twenty feet long and with two rows of five legs, they have no eyes, but several sets of ears set like leaves on stalks. They are blind, but they can hear incredibly well, and when moving the echoes of their hooves striking one another let them 'see' their surroundings. Their absolute worst and main predator is the Hectathrich, who's scream is enough to send them into a coma due to the sensitivity of their hearing. Hectathrich A tall, semi-humanoid creature with a serpentine lower half, though it lacks scales, and has several human-like arms, complete with five-fingered hands. Though slow, they open their hideously wide, unhinged jaws and release a scream that is practically paralyzing, capable of rupturing eardrums after a few seconds of exposure. Once stunned, they will crawl over to their prey and stuff it headfirst into their gaping, toothy maws, chewing the victim up as they go. Isidri Isidri are incredibly beautiful birds that live in high trees. WIth plumage in a variety of soft, sleepy pastel colours, and melodious, quiet songs, it is easy to fall asleep in their presence, and the dreams that come in these instances are often very good ones, and, for the magically or psychically sensitive, often prophetic. They are almost never seen outside the hills, and held in high regard by the Duur' Utchetck, who see dreams as being a vehicle for the voice of the Void. Some of the priests and particularly competent Abyssal Work ritualists will keep one of these birds. Jerichkt Simian bears, these creatures have short wings. Once they see prey or a patch edible vegetation, they will run quickly downhill and then leap, gliding to the place they want to go. Lacktaecht A curious mix of vegetation and animal, it looks like a pile of brush at first, but when startled or chasing down prey it bounds about on long, sinewy limbs that look like branches. On its underside is a round, gnashing mouth, filled with backward-curving fangs. They are ambush predators that eat small animals that pass by. There is one sub-species of these creatures, however, that actively lures prey in, growing very sweet, delicious-smelling fruit or berries on their branches. These berries, however, are narcotic and addictive, so the animals that show up are often allowed to leave, usually bringing more of their kin back next time, in which case they are all devoured. Ochkaal A low-slung, bad-tempered animal, they look vaguely like a plate, though their back is covered in a spiny bone shell and their tail is a long, whiplike affair with a set of needle-like spikes which dig in and pump poison into the perpetrator. Xi' Axcharad A flightless bird of some size, they eat mostly berries, leaves, and nuts. They are dopey, slow-witted animals, and mostly survive by being thirteen feet tall and capable of kicking aggressors to death in one or two blows. Zopple A sort of boneless ball resembling a kitten's head with only a set of small fangs and three prehensile tails. Six claws ringing their belly, they are omnivorous scavengers that favour the treetops. Zopples are notoriously curious and similarly known well as thieves, taking interesting items from travelers' bags or items lying about towns. Despite this, they appear in Nightlands mythos as clever and often helpful, even though their motives from helping are often selfish. Shadrigal Fens Fauna The vast Shadrigal fens, though at first seeming empty, provide habitation for an array of amphibious or aquatic animals. The shallow pools also hide strange things that have never seen light past the tangled weed and muck. Apthichk A type of semi-aquatic, hairless monkey, they have webbed, multi-jointed paws, a long tail ending in a flat paddle, and slitted, horizontal pupils as well as a nicitating membrane. They eat mostly frogs, crayfish and some aquatic vegetation, which they swim to catch, being very adroit in the water. Clans of them can often be seen moving in large groups across the fens. Echindich A type of predatory dragonfly creature, they have a set of spiky five-sectioned jaws and several serpentine and insectoid eyes set in their chitinous bodies, and their tails have long stingers to complement the hooked, mantis forelegs they use to rip apart their prey. Though only the size of crows, they hunt in swarms of ten or more, hunting just about anything they come across. They are also cannibalistic, and the wounded among them are generally eaten by the pack once they've finished with their current prey. In-fighting is common during rest periods between hunts, but during the actual chase the Echindich work with an almost unnatural unison, using quite advanced tactics to capture and kill their prey. Juurguul A strange, incredibly tall herbivore, they have chitinous, stilt-like legs thirty feet long. The upper body is shelled, with a long, tubular mouth coming out the front. This proboscis trails through the water, snapping up with two pinchers any clumps of algae or weeds it comes across to be fed into a small, sucker-like mouth the inside of which is studded with round teeth. Perit A bizarre creature, it looks like nothing more than a ten-foot amoeba made of dripping slime and waving cillia, they are decomposers that take care of rotting things of all types. Oddly enough, they seem semi-intelligent and fairly congenial towards other living things. Periti are almost universally well-liked among the fen-dwelling animals, and there is almost nothing that eats them. The cause of this is the service Periti provide as cleaners, and they will crawl over or partially engulf creatures, sucking off the grime, parasites, and matted vegetation. The Periti are always exceedingly gentle in this work. Thichktid A large, sedentary creature, easily thirty feet in diameter, they bury themselves in the fens muddy ground and hibernate for nearly their whole lives, countless tiny mouths along their numerous outspread tentacles devouring burrowing insects, worms, and small animals. The waking of one to find a mate or devour a passing, much larger animal is very rare, and always impressive, entailing a massive cascade of mud and detritus as they explode up from under the muck. Tobochti A type of colony-creature, it is made up of hundreds of specialized algae that form a blob of green with the equivalent muscles, a stomach, and even a brain. They are herbivores, pulling in any vegetation they find and using an internal pouch lined with acid-producing algae and lichens to break down the matter. Vuu' Duu An absolutely gigantic snake and the top predator of the Fens, this serpent reaches more than a hundred feet long and slithers through the swamp at leisure, eating Thichktidi and Juurguul as it can catch. Oddly, it shares a relationship with Periti, which hang about it in groups and clean off both its scales and fangs regularly. The Vuu' Duu seems to enjoy such attentions, and even offers some of its dead prey to them on occasion. Zothaan A dog-sized, flat beetle that trundles dopily along eating whatever edible vegetation it comes across, they defend themselves by hunkering down and looking very convincingly like a half-sunken rock or log. Uudand Swamp Fauna The Uudand Swamp houses a variety of creatures, most being aquatic, arboreal, or amphibious. The rich wildlife is only matched in diversity by the sheer number of spirits, minor demons, and peculiar ghosts that haunt this area. Aagimi A type of boa, these serpents have two sets of large fins on their back as well as a second set of eyes. They spend much of their time in the water, searching for fish and alligators. Bokot Small, spindly tree-dwelling herbivores, they are little more than a dozen multi-jointed finger-like legs tipped with gripping claws, a hard shell, and a sticky, rasping tongue that they use to scrape the bark off trees with. Bokot make nests from hanging moss and vines, these nests usually inhabited by anywhere from a dozen to a hundred of them. During the day they skitter about in the treetops, eating bark, and as darkness falls they go back to the nest, regurgitating some of their daily meal for the pink larvae they have. These larvae look disturbingly like a boneless human thumb with a small, flabby mouth at one end. Dorido An insect, these are thumbnail sized, triangular parasites that use the sharp edges of their exoskeleton to cut small holes in animals' hides. Once that is done, they slide under the skin and spend most of their lives there, eating small amounts of flesh at leisure and only coming out to meet up with other Dorido to mate on the skin. Eggs hatch after a few days, and the cycle continues until the animal is dead and completely hollow, a tattered skin empty of flesh and organs. Faalkhan A variety of giant frog, these creatures can grow to the size of an auroch, eating anything living and able to pass through their wide jaws. They are mostly sedentary, though, and coat themselves in muck and swamp vegetation as camoflage. Hotaous A bizarre creature, it consists of a disc of floppy flesh, with a mouth on top and a dozen tentacles on the bottom. They are arboreal, crawling slowly along trees, and have a peculiar method of moving from one tree to another. A special ligament will twist up, causing the creature to contract from the size of a large plate to that of a hand, and then it releases, flinging the Hotaous from its perch and causing it to spin rapidly, maintaining lift while moving horizontally. They use this to glide from one branch to another like a frisbee. Though they are perfectly harmless and eat only vegetation, it should be noted that being hit in the head by one is quite painful, and on hearing a dull humming noise while in the swamps it is advisable to quickly duck. Korokktuu A single large eye set on a long prehensile, hairy tail, Korokktuu sit in the tops of fruit trees and stick their long stinger into the fruit to drain out the juices. Surprisingly, a series of blowholes and pipes along the tails of these creatures create a variety of rather beautiful sounds, piping and chiming and whistling noises that, when in a group, can turn into a complex and enjoyable melody. Though found in greater numbers in the swamp, the Korokktuu can be found throughout most of the Nightlands, and at certain times of the day groups of them will get together and release time-specific melodies, though no one is sure why they do this. Lakedee A highly venomous serpent, a single bite from this bright orange, two-headed snake causes blurred vision, dementia, loss of coordination and short-term amnesia. They are often referred to as memory-eaters due to the fact that survivors of a bite will often forget a multitude of minor things such as what they got for a birthday or a trivial historical event. Oppledicht A kind of large owl, they have a three-faced head that is not attached by a spinal cord, allowing it to rotate indefinitely, as the brain is self-contained with a separate nerve system, and the body with a secondary brain. In fact, this is a symbiotic creature, the head a seperate animal from the eyeless body. The body can kill things for food, and the head can spot prey, but cannot really kill it. With a kind of odd telepathic coordination, the creature can catch food and eat it as well. Q' Ichtath A massive, serpentine fish growing to fifteen feet long, they have short limbs packed with muscle and webbed claws, letting them half-swim, half-crawl through the weed-choked backwaters of the swamp. They eat snakes, mostly, and juvenile Faalkhan, tearing them apart with knifelike teeth. Q' Molodo A kind of large, harmless bird, they have smooth, thin, almost hairlike feathers, a long snakelike body, and no wings. THey simply slither about the swamp, eating fallen fruit and other vegetation, though if attacked they will attempt to constrict the aggressor in powerful coils. Tadalathi A type of crustacean, these lobster-like animals crawl through the muck searching for roots, algae, and rotting vegetation. Though they have no claws, their forelegs are like spike-studded clubs, which they can bash with and strike at astonishing speed if provoked. Zol A simple ball of slime with a nucleus, this creature is likely a relative of the Perit, as it shares many of the same features. However, the Zol is not as friendly, and is more 'solid', with a thick, opaque membrane and a more mud-like consistency. Q' Sdithck Mountains These mountains are more temperate than the Malaphetcht range, being not as high, and as such the creatures living here are not as hardy, but more varied. Some of the strangest and most dangerous animals can be found on or directly around the highest peak in the range, Duur' Indritcht. Zuu' Carcharoth A breed of huge bats covered in chitin, they are the size of eagles and hunt during dusk and dawn, looking for night birds and smaller bats to eat. Carcharoth are notoriously unhygenic, a snot-covered snout always dripping disease-ridden saliva and mucous, mangy fur, and a shroud of flies that are attracted by the smell of rotting meat that gets stuck in their fur after each meal. They are not aggressive towards people unless sorely provoked, but then they are highly dangerous, as even a small scratch or bite is highly likely to become infected. Duur' Akadalm A sixty-foot carnivorous predator somewhat reminiscent of a gigantic leech possessed of three legs with ripping talons, a dozen long feeding tentacles around the sucker-mouth filled with fangs, and six sets of wings with feathers made of flesh, the Duur' Akadalmi live at the summit of Duur' Indritcht. Thankfully, they rarely leave their roosts. Like the Crotoa, they are rightly feared in the Nightlands, and often depicted in the mythos of that place as terrible destructive forces. As anyone who has seen one attack in earnest, the myths aren't far off; Duur' Akadalm are incredibly powerful predators capable of wiping out a village in a few hours. Dxidatniyx An insect that lives on the mountainsides, they resemble thick-bodied whip-scorpions with only four legs and a set of sharp foreclaws. They use these to carve a beachball-sized rock into a bowl-shape during their juvenile years, while they live with other juveniles and a single adult. Once their rock is carved, they flip it onto themselves and an adhesive fluid seals it to their back. A peculiarity is that the Dxidatniyx become attached to their stone shell in more ways than one, and if the stone is cracked or damaged they will lovingly repair it with the same fluid, and are known to be easily recognized as individuals by their style of decorating the stone with various items. Hapchidth A small mountain bird, they live in nests made of the bones of small animals, which they kill as a pack. It is not uncommon to see a ball of bones twenty feet in diameter and inhabited by more than fifty Hapchidithi built into a large tree. Kharhna A sprightly, congenial creature, they look rather like small antelope about the size of a dog. They are strict herbivores, nibbling at grass and shoots in the gentler foothills of the mountains. They are odd-toes ungulates, having seven toes tipped with small claws they use to dig up roots and tubers. Maayaghi A kind of reptillian creature some twenty feet long, with a pair of large batlike wings, they have a hooked beak and a spine-skin crest crowning their head. They have two long prehensile tails and a second set of eyes peering from the underside of their beak that they use to spot prey on the ground, and ten toes that stand out from the hublike feet in a radial pattern. Surprisingly, they can be tamed if dealt with very, very carefully, and a well-trained Maayaghi mount is a rare and treasured thing, as only the fastest, strongest, and most attuned Ghraethetcheckt are able to find, befriend, and tame a Maayaghi after climbing Duur' Indritcht, which is an incredibly dangerous place. Niddaugh A gigantic serpent, these creatures can grow to sixty or seventy feet long. They have a set of small forelimbs with hooked talons, and a distinctly shovel-shaped snout that they used to burrow through the earth. Niddaughi are, however, vegetarians, and dig about until they find a tree. They go for several months eating at the roots, and move on once the tree has died. A mating couple, however, will feed on a tree together, and after it has fallen, will hollow it out, stuff it with detritus, and the female will deposit her eggs there. Both male and female will guard the log with their lives, and these serpents are often used to symbolize the ideal of loyalty and fidelity. Phuu A pudgy mammal somewhat like an overweight capybara possessed of eyes on long stalks that peer at everything. Category:Zoology